It was a beautiful winter day in the high peaks ... blue sky, almost no wind, temps in the mid-teens ... we met at the Ausable Club parking lot and began our trek around 7:45am. We were able to follow a fairly good snowshoe track up to the col between Sawteeth and Pyramid/Gothics ... after that the track wasn't all that good. We got off trail once but the GPS tracklog got us on the right path, and we were soon enjoying some snacks along with the views on Pyramid. Then we dropped down a couple hundred feet and then back up onto Gothics. More awesome views. The picture posted here shows the ridgeline trail as it goes down off of Gothics ... we estimated the snowdrift to be about 12 or 13 feet deep ... the trail was firm and that made for a much more comfortable trip off from the mountain. Once into the woods it was steep until we got to the Armstrong trail junction ... then it was off into some fairly thick spruce (thick only because of the snow depth which made the branches face level), with some icy ups and downs. That lasted about 1/2 mile or so, and then we were into open woods, steep again, and down the mountain. The last 30 yards, at the bottom, were very dicey, with lots of ice. I went off trail and butt slid, or crab walked down to the bottom. Beaver Meadow Falls were all frozen over. We made it back to the cars by 7pm, and I was home by 9pm. My thighs were very sore today ... walking on level ground is fine, but going up and down the stairs is another story!
More snow forecast for tonight ... maybe up to 4 inches around here, more in Albany. This almost looks like the winter that just won't quit.
That's it for today!
No comments:
Post a Comment